After two days of rest and recuperation, after converging with the army, Yang Xuan commanded the soldiers and horses of the 7 towns to kill in three ways towards Yaoting.

Seeing the volunteers coming, Duoduo hurriedly convened the generals to discuss, Cai Shiying admonished: "Uncle regent, the Han people have the habit of cutting their hair as the head of the family, I heard that in order to advance eastward, Yang Xuan cut his hair and acted as the head, cut off his hair to accompany his parents in front of the grave, and cut off his beard to give it to his wife.

Uncle Regent, looking at it this way, Yang Xuan's ambition to go east this time is not small.

However, judging from the last battle, all units of the Volunteer Army were well-equipped, the soldiers were well-trained, and the quality of its individual soldiers was far above that of our Green Battalion.

I might as well wait to retreat and return to Wuchang, so rely on the thoroughfare of the nine provinces of Wuchang to deal with the volunteers. ”

Tong Tulai, the leader of the Zhengbei Banner of the Han Army, sighed and said: "Although what Governor Cai said is reasonable, if our army retreats, it will inevitably be cheered for by the good deeds, saying that our army will be defeated by the Volunteers again, and the anti-Qing forces in various places will inevitably jump out to fight against our Barbarian Qing Army and respond to the Volunteers' Eastern Crusade."

In this way, the retreat may temporarily relieve the pressure on our army, but in the long run, it will be disadvantageous.

Besides, the pavilion is the last passage to block the volunteers from Sichuan, there are many mountains and obstacles along the way, and there are so many dangers, if we give up without hindrance, we will definitely laugh at others. ”

Yue Le also admonished, "Uncle Regent, it is not yet the middle of July, and the rice in the field is about to be harvested, if our army retreats, the volunteer army will drive straight into the Jianghan Plain."

When the time comes, the local people will definitely resist grain and donations, and will not pay grain to us.

Uncle Regent, Huguang is familiar with the world, if Yang Xuan collects all the grain of the Jianghan Plain, how can we deal with it? ”

Cai Shiying shook his head and said: "Commander Tong, to put it mildly, in the plains, the Eight Banners of the Barbarian Qing Dynasty are invincible in the world.

In this mountainous area, the Volunteers are few opponents.

I heard that from the four (Sichuan) to the Huguang area, the high mountains and deep ravines are commonplace, in addition to them are also good at rock climbing, more than ten zhang of cliffs and cliffs climbed up in less than a moment, so people are not careful.

This road is a dangerous road for us, and for the volunteers it is just a small hill.

Besides, Yang Jie's naval army was almost wiped out, and if we don't retreat, this Yiting area will be where we will be buried at that time."

Duoduo shook his head and looked at the crowd: "Everyone, I know what you and others are worried about, the cavalry is good for fighting on the plains, and the infantry is good for fighting in the mountains and hills, and fighting in this pavilion may not be good for our cavalry.

It is now the height of summer, and Yang Xuan actually raised troops for the Northern Expedition at this time, obviously bullying my Manchurian army and not being accustomed to the hot weather in the south.

This king is expected to define that there is a lack of food in the brave army, and if Yang Xuan is allowed to win the food, it will inevitably rise sharply.

We have 10,000 Manchurian iron cavalry, 2 banners of the Han army and eight banners, and 30,000 green battalion soldiers and horses, we also occupy the city of Yaoting, we can let the green battalion soldiers and horses, the eight banners of the Han army fight with the volunteers during the day, and the sun is not too big after the king leads the Manchurian cavalry to kill, and the volunteers will be defeated. ”

Although the sun is much better, it is still very hot, and although many Manchurian and Mongolian generals still hate the hot weather in the south, as long as they don't fight when the sun is high, they can still hold on.

Duoduo reorganized the Manchurian and Mongolian soldiers and horses and actively prepared for war in order to fight to the death with the volunteers.

After hearing that the attack in front was blocked, Yue Le and Cai Shiying commanded the Han army's Zhengbei Banner, Mosaic North Banner and Green Battalion soldiers and horses lined up in the back city of Yaoting, while the 10,000 Manchu and Mongolian cavalry led by Duoduo had no news, Yang Xuan slowly understood that Yiting was the decisive battle site of the two sides.

After understanding the significance of the decisive battle, Yang Xuan dispatched troops to approach the Qianting on the one hand, and on the other hand, he hurried to the front line of the Qianting and convened the generals to discuss the matter.

Of course, everyone understood the significance of this battle, and in order to facilitate command, the front-line staff officers even made a huge sand table, and now everyone is gathered around the sand table to study the enemy's situation.

Yang Xuan stood at the top, beside him stood Wu Yanghu, director of the General Staff Department, Zhao Ronggui and Wang Xiang, senior senators, Yang Wei and Gao Wengui, operational staff officers, and the two rows stood the general soldiers, deputy generals, and guerrilla generals of each town, and everyone gathered in front of the sand table.

Wu Yanghu, chief of staff, pointed to the surrounding terrain with a baton, confirmed the deployment of each battalion with everyone, and analyzed the distribution of Tartar troops with everyone.

Cao Zhang, Wang Xiang, Li Laiheng and others believed that the Tartar cavalry might have gone out of the city and hid in a corner in order to kill at the most critical moment and defeat the volunteers in one fell swoop.

However, Zhao Ronggui, Liu Weiming and others believed that the Volunteers had continuously defeated the Eight Banners of the Barbarian Qing Dynasty and killed the Manchu clansmen such as Haoge, Luo Luohun, Nikan and other Manchu clansmen, and now the Tartars must be quite afraid of the Volunteers.

Although the ten miles around the pavilion were hilly areas, and it would certainly be difficult for the Tartar cavalry to ambush them around, they must now be ambushed in the distance, and they will be killed when the battle between the two sides is in full swing.

Zhao Ronggui and others believed that although the city was small, Duoduo was very likely to lead the cavalry to garrison the city, and kill it when the two sides were in the middle of the battle, and solve the battle in one fell swoop.

Seeing the arguments between the two sides, Liu Wenxiu smiled and said: "Everyone, you don't need to argue at all, even if there are more than 10,000 Tartar cavalry next to you, what is the effect?" ”

Everyone was shocked, especially Yang Xuan shook his head again and again: "General Liu, expect the enemy to be lenient, don't be careless." ”

Liu Wenxiu arched his hand and said: "Lord Wang, even if the enemy is lenient, the more than 10,000 cavalry of the Tartars are useless."

We have eight towns of soldiers and horses this time, even if the guard town is not full, but think about it, all the departments of our army are well-equipped, the soldiers are well-trained, and everyone's morale is high.

Since we can easily defeat the 30,000 fake Tartar soldiers and horses of the green battalion outside the city, what is the use of Duoduo leading these more than 10,000 Manchurian Eight Banners? ”

Yang Xuan was a little relieved when he heard this, but Li Laiheng, the deputy general of the Independent Association who had just been reorganized, didn't think so, in the past, the forty or fifty thousand righteous troops were often chased and beaten by more than 10,000 fake Tartars, and now there are only 8,000 people in the department, how can he not be afraid of fake Tartars?

Liu Wenxiu said with a smile: "General Xiao Li, think about it with your head, although there were 40,000 soldiers and horses in the righteous army in the past, more than half of them were transporting grain and grass, and fighting a war could not help at all.

Even if there are 30,000 soldiers and horses left, more than half of them are just waving flags and shouting beside them, pretending to be scary as suspicious soldiers, and only 10,000 people can really fight.

Of the remaining 10,000 people, the really well-trained ones are only the 2,000 pro-troops led by the main general, and these pro-troops often go to the battlefield as one is worth two, and they are not afraid of the fake Tartars at all, while the other partial generals are used as cannon fodder, running faster than anyone else when defeating battles, and rushing fiercer than anyone else when they win battles.

General Xiao Li, tell me, is this the case? ”

Li Laiheng thought for a while and arched his hand: "General Liu is a battlefield general, of course what he said is this truth. ”

Pointing to the soldiers and horses behind him, Liu Wenxiu said triumphantly: "The prince asked all departments to be reorganized, eliminate the old, weak, sick and disabled, now the whole army is elite, and now the brothers eat well and strongly, not to mention anything else, just say that the brothers who transported grain, grass and baggage battalions are better fed and powerful than the pro-army brothers under everyone in the past, not to mention other soldiers and horses."

Now, even if there are 1 or 2 musket squadrons in each brigade, tiger squat artillery squads in each battalion, Fran machine gun brigades in each regiment, and red-coated artillery brigades in each town, everyone is well-trained, well-equipped, and the weapons used are also handy.

Although there are only 8,000 soldiers and horses in your town now, even if you deduct those heavy soldiers, there are 6,000 people who can fight. ”

When everyone heard this, they applauded loudly, and it took a long time for Li Laiheng to understand and patted his head again and again: "General Liu said this, it is really still the truth."

Han Xin's more troops the better, I have never figured out why I have to disarm in the face of war with the talent of the prince and let some old brothers carry out military cantonment, but now I think about it, it turns out to be this reason. ”

Wu Yanghu said with a smile: "General Li, of course, the more troops you lead to fight, the better. Last time, Haoge led his troops into Kousi (Sichuan), and the adults could say that all the people were soldiers, so Haoge was defeated and returned to Hanzhong and was killed by Dolgon.

Let's think about it, in the past, although the imperial court appointed township chiefs under the county, it did not effectively govern at all. Since the beginning of the reign of the Lord, the township office has been established, and each village has organized a security team to guard the various cottages when the Tartars enter the Kou.

Hauge's reckless prodding lead led the minister straight in, and its failure can be imagined. ”

When everyone heard this, they were even more surprised, Yang Xuan felt full of heat, in order to cover up, he had to say that he had stolen from the righteous army, didn't you let people wave their flags and shout, didn't the generals organize and train the pro-army?

Then I will train the security regiment to wave the flag and shout beside it, and train the volunteers as pro-army.

This is the first time that Yang Xuan has publicly expounded his ideas for military training, and everyone is curious, listening carefully one by one, and after half a ring, they feel that it is too simple, but it is very effective.

Then returning to the main body, I thought of what a great man said about despising the enemy strategically and valuing the enemy tactically.

Yang Xuan said: "Everyone, what General Liu said is right, although Duoduo has more than 10,000 cavalry, he only has 10,000 cavalry.

Since the appearance of stirrups and saddles and hooves, the northern ethnic groups have been suppressing our Han people with cavalry, so since the Sui and Tang dynasties, the northern ethnic minorities have been the biggest worry of our Han people.

The Qing army relied on the cavalry in its hands, coupled with the support of traitors such as Hong Chengchou and Wu Sangui to enter the Central Plains, it can be said that it is invincible, and it is really because of the benefits of the cavalry.

However, it is different from other places, and it is full of hillsides and mountains, which is not conducive to cavalry combat and is beneficial to our infantry.

The whereabouts of the 10,000 cavalry of the Tartars are unknown, and there are only 30,000 fake Tartars of the green battalion and two white flags of the Han army outside the city of Yaoting. ”

When everyone heard the loud applause, Yang Xuan made a campaign deployment accordingly.

Then, according to the terrain, Guo Chonglie was ordered to lead the 3rd town to garrison various passes in the north to protect the safety of the flanks of the army and prevent the Duoduo cavalry from attacking the flanks of the volunteers and outflanking the volunteers.

Chen Huaixi, He Dou, Tan Wen and others led the naval army to march east along the river in the south to attack and harass the flank of Yiting.

Cao Xun's 9th town is in the north, Liu Weiming's 6th town and Liu Wenxiu's 13th town are in the middle, and Li Laiheng's independent association is in the south, as the main force to attack the green camp fake Tartar and the Han army flag fake Tartar inside and outside the city.

The guard town and the 7th town of Jin Tongwu, the Duhegui Cavalry Association, and the Ma Mingluan Artillery Regiment were in the center to support.